The Anson Mills Diaries Collection is made up of diaries written by Anson Peaslee Mills. In 1890 the Mills family moved to La Jolla and for the next fifty years were among the prominent citizens of the village. When Mr. Mills moved to San Diego from Maine in 1886, he opened a law office with James Wadham, who later became Mayor of San Diego. After moving to La Jolla, he did not practice his profession. He did odd jobs; painting and carpentry, fished extensively, hunted a little, and played his clarinet. But his real claim to fame are his diaries. The diaries give an attractive and informative glimpse of life in early La Jolla. He devoted a page to each day of the year, and Anson soon realized that the diary was a responsibility to take on, and felt his work was not done unless he had filled the page. He gave not only local news, but also, after the first World War broke out, kept adding running comments on the history of the world. He was devoted to his family, and the diaries contain many expressions of his care for them. This material pertains to the history and heritage of La Jolla, California; its people, places and events. A container list is included on the PDF and HTML versions.

The La Jolla Historical Society inspires and empowers the community to make La Jolla’s diverse past a relevant part of contemporary life. The La Jolla Historical Society’s Collections encompass over 80 years of actively collecting archival material, books, maps, scrapbooks, ephemera, fine art, newspapers, street and land use files, business and personal documents and historic and archaeological artifacts. The Society boasts over 20,000 photographs, over 1000 postcards, 400-plus architectural drawings and approximately 200 oral history recordings. Collecting was initiated by Howard Randolph and volunteers on the historical committee of the Library Association of La Jolla. The Collection began by gathering photographs and documentation in the late 1930s, which later became the nucleus of the La Jolla Historical Society’s Collections. The Society was created in 1963. Through many moves in location the Society continued collecting and expanding. Accumulated Collections took on its current construct in 2010 after the renovation of the La Jolla Historical Society’s campus of structures in central La Jolla, which consists of the 1904 Wisteria Cottage and 1940s Balmer Annex used for exhibits and programming, and a 1909 cottage used for business and research offices. The late Ellen Browning Scripps’ 1916 automobile garage was also renovated and now houses the Collection in a modern collections storage facility. Materials are housed in archival boxes, sleeves, envelopes and other archival-safe materials and are cared for according to standards and best practices of the museum profession. In 2016, the Society initiated new PastPerfect Museum Software to manage and catalog its Collections and in 2018 started using the Online Archive of California to upload searchable information from its Collections to enable improved public access. The Society will continue these processes and look forward to utilizing new opportunities to collect, preserve and share the history of La Jolla.

4 linear feet

The La Jolla Historical Society holds the copyright to any unpublished materials

The Collection is open for research